PDs @ SEA
PDs @ SEA is a conversation series created for anesthesiology residency leaders, faculty, and trainees who want an honest look into the evolving world of anesthesia education. The show features Residency Program Directors from across the country discussing the decisions, challenges, and real-world considerations behind recruiting, training, and supporting residents.
Hosts Bryan and Marianne draw from their own experiences while inviting colleagues to reflect on practical issues such as changes to the interview and application process, transitions in leadership, and shifting expectations in graduate medical education. Each episode offers candid dialogue, shared lessons, and the sense of community that many program directors look for but often find difficult to access in day-to-day work.
The series includes in-depth conversations with current and former residency leaders, members of the American Society of Anesthesiologists Medical Student Component, and educators who are shaping how residents learn. Together, these discussions provide insight into how program directors think, how residency decisions are made, and how the field continues to adapt to the needs of students, residents, and institutions.
Produced by the Stanford AIM Lab on behalf of the Society for Education in Anesthesiology.
For questions, topic suggestions, or to join the conversation, email: pdsatsea@seahq.org
Episodes
15 episodes
Match Day Reflections: What This Year Taught Program Directors
Episode SummaryResidency recruitment is often discussed in terms of outcomes, match rates, fill rates, and competitiveness. Less often is it examined as a continuous, year-round process shaped by strategy, signaling, and evolving ...
Global health Opportunities in Anesthesia
Jo Davies, MBBS, FRCA,Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Washington,Director of the Society for Education in Anesthesia (SEA) and Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO) Traveling Fellowship with the Commi...
Early Exposure, Better Advice: Medical Student Education and the Future of Anesthesiology
Medical student education in anesthesiology is often treated as peripheral to residency leadership. Less often is it examined as a strategic lever for recruitment, advising quality, and the long-term health of the specialty.In this episo...
Everything You Wanted to Know About Being a Program Director
Program directorship is often framed as an administrative role or temporary leadership assignment. Less often is it examined as a structurally vulnerable position, balancing the needs of residents, faculty, institutions, and accreditation requi...
A New Co-Host and a New Era in Residency Recruitment
This episode marks a major milestone for PDs @ SEA. We celebrate our tenth episode and welcome our new co-host, Dr. Marianne Chen, Residency Program Director at Stanford. Marianne joins host Dr. Bryan Mahoney to talk about leaders...
Passing the Torch: How a Residency Survives (and Grows) Through Leadership Change
In this episode of PDs at SEA, Dr. David Stahl reconnects with two former colleagues from The Ohio State University to reflect on what happens when leadership changes hands in a residency program. Dr. Amy Bauman, now the program director at OSU...
The Truth About Signaling, Letters of Intent, and The Match: A PD’s Unfiltered Guide
In this conversation, Dr. Brian Mahoney sits down to speak directly to the concerns and confusion many applicants experience during the residency match process. The discussion focuses on how the signaling system is evolving, practical strategie...
The Questions Students Are Asking Us: A Conversation With the ASA Medical Student Community
In this episode of PDs @ SEA, we sit down with student doctor and ASA Medical Student Component Senior Advisor, Tiffy Kung, to review the most commonly asked questions from medical students preparing to apply into anesthesiology. Together, we u...
The Signal Reality Check: What Actually Determined Interview Invites This Year
In this episode of PDs @ SEA, we sit down at the end of the interview season to compare what program directors actually experienced under the expanded signaling system. With both programs having wrapped interviews and finalized rank lists befor...
How to Build a Program Residents Want to Stay In
In this episode of PDs @ SEA, newly appointed residency program director Dr. Erik Romanelli sits down with his mentor’s mentor, Dr. Adam Levine of Mount Sinai, who has led his residency program for nearly three decades. The conversation traces ...
Why Residency Leadership is Burning Out (And Why It Still Matters)
In this conversation, Dr. Bryan Mahoney speaks with Dr. Stacy Fairbanks about her journey through anesthesiology training, medical education leadership, and her recent transition out of the residency program director role. Dr. Fairbanks reflect...
So the Applications Just Dropped: How Program Directors Actually Read Them
On application release day, Drs. Bryan Mahoney and David Stahl sit down for an unscripted conversation about what they are seeing in the first hours of the cycle. With residency applications now open and program signals in play, they compare ho...
The Interview Dark Web: What Program Directors Learned from Discord
In this debrief conversation, Drs. Bryan Mahoney and David Stahl reflect on their interview with Dr. Reid Geisler, former moderator of the national anesthesiology applicant Discord server. They explore how online communities shape applicant per...
Inside the Anesthesiology Discord: What Applicants Are Saying When We’re Not in the Room
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Reid Geisler, surgery intern and incoming anesthesiology resident, who served as moderator of the national anesthesiology applicant Discord server. Over two recent application cycles, the server grew to more t...
Signals, Step 1, and the Search for Fit: A Candid Conversation
In this inaugural episode of the Program Directors at SEA podcast, hosts Dr. Brian Mahoney and Dr. David Stahl open a candid conversation about the current landscape of anesthesiology residency recruitment. They explore how program directors ar...
